One of the things about adoption that's a bit like having kids the biological way is that there's this interminable period of waiting between the point when you know you're supposedly having a child ("Oh, the strip turned blue!" compared to "Oh, we're finally DTC!" ((which is "Dossier To China" for those new to this game)) ) and the point when said child appears on the scene demanding milk and attention. Unlike the biological variety, the paper pregnancy is prone to stretch out so that it measures years rather than months, or can... more

So, you're going to China, and you want to learn something about the place while you're there - you want to get a sense of this country that's become part of your family's story.

There are hundreds of large, impressive historical sites. They're in all the books. But you... what you really need is something genuine and different. Something memorable.

I am, like many people of my acquaintance, prone to think too much about little things. Not little things like these (although that's probably the most significant news you'll read here for a long time), but things like words.

Sometimes, they make me feel funny.

Here are a few of them, along with vague stabs in the direction of explaining why I think they're a little peculiar (as opposed to ha-ha).

Abandoned. - Generally, this is a hard word to avoid, since we talk about "abandonment... more

Daughter, my daughter - she won't stop talking. We are not alone - apparently this is just about typical for four-year-olds (and typically exasperating for their parents). Son (son!), on the other hand, is not talking at all, really. Doctors are beginning to raise their eyebrows, but not saying anything yet. He's 26 months old, just about. (This age is, incidentally, about when this humble typist began his career with words, according to those who were around at the time.)

So, of course,... more

One of the things with this international adoption lark - the actual process, rather than the raising-of-beloved-monsters comes afterward - is that an awful lot always seems to depend on luck. Where do babies come from? They come from all over - America, Vietnam, China - and the rules governing the transaction (because, among many other things, it is a transaction) are never exactly fixed. SARS... more

Learning to speak Chinese is fun. For English speakers, it's not particularly intuitive or easy, but the more you poke at Mandarin, the more it seems like a game. Case in point: chengyu, or four-character idioms. These are sayings that everyone in China knows and everyone uses in day-to-day conversation in Chinese, but that can remain a clockwork orange to readers who haven't joined the club. (See what I did there? Do you see?)

They... more

Over there to the right of these words is a picture from NASA called "Eastern China Pollution." Yes, you can't actually see the Great Wall from space but you can see the air pollution over it.

So the question for traveling families and other visitors becomes, "Do I have to pack breathing equipment?"

Officials... more

Going to Chengdu this month? Say "Hi" to Neil Gaiman at the 2007 International SF/Fantasy Conference.

Chengdu is a familiar city to those of us in the international adoption community, since it's home to lots of kids at... more

We like Yao Ming because he's cool. He pokes holes in stereotypes about small, subtle Chinese people by being big and in-your-face and famous. And, incidentally, because he's made China's AIDS orphans a reality for people around the world, when many prominent, influential folks are quite happy to forget they exist.

... more

DVD Review: The Painted Veil, dir. John Curran, starring Edward Norton & Naomi Watts.

If you're a fan of W. Somerset Maugham and ever wanted to see what a Chinese orphanage looked like in the 1920s, then this is the film for you. If sweeping vistas of Guangxi's river valleys combined with shallow graves, grisly cholera deaths and misbehavior and redemption among the colonial British expats might put you off, then stay well away.

Edward... more